That's the strangest thing for me. He looked truly terrible in the air last season, to the extent it was hard to see how he'd been as successful as he had been. There'd been a notable improvement at the start of this season, and then suddenly a couple of months into the season he started winning the majority of aerial balls even when up against good target men.
I dont think its strange. It was a clear weakness that was worth pointing out. He made among the fewest headers in the league until recent months.
He's still 8th least attempted headers in the league even though yesterday he made 7 headers and he had that other performance a month or so ago where he made something like 6 that game too. Thats because he'd made so few headers up until that point that he has to work hard to change it.
Bailly would be on there above him btw just hasnt played enough games. 1.9 attempted headers per game for him which would be 2nd lowest in the league if I hadnt set any criteria for appearances
So its not really that strange to work hard on something thats a clear deficit is it? Of course we have some posters in here claiming nothing has changed and that hes always performed exactly the same and people just hated him.
But yeah, its what surely should have happened is that the staff and Lindelof worked on his weak point and now its not a weak point.
So credit to him for the hard work.
Other than taking charge in the air which is great, and keeping the ball with his passes which is good, he didnt do much defending against Southampton. Smalling took charge with the defending on the ground winning the ball a lot more. Overall I would say they were about equal.